Spain to 'Take a Step' Towards PA Statehood at UN in September

Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister Trinidad Jimenez says she is hoping to find a way to convince her colleagues to back recognition for the Palestinian Authority at the United Nations when it asks to be recognized as a new country in September.

“It's time to take a step toward recognizing the Palestinian state,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez will meet with European Union foreign ministers on September 2 in Sopot, Poland, prior to the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York on September 20.

On the agenda at the EU meeting will be the crises that have resulted from the government brutality currently being exerted against civilian protesters in Syria and Libya.

But in an interview with the El Pais newspaper published Sunday, Jimenez expressed concern that “now is the time to do something to give the Palestinians the hope that a state could become reality.”

Jimenez added that it was essential to “give them some signal, because if we don't it could generate great frustration for the Palestinian people.” She did not add what the consequences of such frustration might be.